Newton Aycliffe Spartans started the 2014 baseball season in spectacular fashion with a pair of blowout wins over Harrogate Cubs last weekend, at a cold and windy Shildon Leisure Centre. In the first of the 2 games, Spartans made light work of the first three Harrogate batters before getting their own offensive going scoring 6 runs in the 1st inning with catcher Jason Hill and third baseman Estil Peniche both hitting home runs.
Spartans then increased their lead inning by inning whilst keeping the Harrogate bats silent on the back of impressive pitching from Mike Holton who racked up 8 strikeouts from 5 innings of work. Spartans running out 14 – 1 winners
In game 2, Spartans changed some personnel and continued where they left off in game 1. Again, steady run production backed by some equally as impressive pitching from Bryan Dunkel meant the North Yorkshire side were never in the game and the Spartans ran out easy 15-1 winners.
Head Coach Mike Holton was naturally delighted with his side’s opening weekend performance ‘We started with a positive frame of mind and we knew that we had the players that could generate plenty of runs, but we also played fantastic defence too, which is always a key to winning games. We know that stiffer tests will follow in the weeks to come but we certainly have laid a great foundation for the rest of the season.’
The Spartans would like to thank Match Sponsor, David Bean and also the management and staff at Cobblers Hall for providing refreshments to the players post match. Spartans are next in action on Sunday 27th April when Liverpool Trojans are the visiting team.
All home matches are played at Sunnydale Leisure Centre in Shildon and this Sunday’s first pitch will be at 12pm, with the second game starting at 2.30pm and a full fixture list and more information on the Spartans can be found at www.newtonaycliffespartans.co.uk
